The present invention relates to the field of organic compounds with optical properties. More specifically it relates to novel dyes with predictable and tunable optical properties, which can be used in many optical applications including nonlinear optics (NLO). The present invention describing novel materials and methods of their preparations may prove especially useful in photonics.
Photonics, the optical analogue of electronics, is a new promising area of technology important in computing or communication. This new field critically depends on preparation of new materials with predictable and tunable optical properties. (Dalton, L. R. Nature 1992, 359, 269., Eaton, D. F.; Meredith, G. R.; Miller, J. S. Adv. Mater. 1992, 4, 45). Organic materials based on charge-transfer (CT) interactions play an important role in this field. (Prasad, P. N.; Williams, D. J. Introduction to Nonlinear Optical Effects in Molecules and Polymers, Wiley-Interscience, New York 1991,. Khanarian, G. Ed.; Molecular and Optoelectronic Materials: Fundamentals and Applications, SPIE: San Diego 1986, Eaton, D. F. Science 1991, 253, 281, Marder, S. R.; Gorman C. B.; Tiemann, B. C.; Cheng, L.-T. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1993, 115, 3006). Described herein is a new class of organic charge-transfer dyes wherein the acceptor and donor parts are spiroconjugated. (Simmons, H. E.; Fukunaga, T. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1967, 89, 5208, Hoffmann, R. Imamura, A.; Zeiss, G. D. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1967, 89, 5215, Durr, H.; Gleiter, R. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 1978, 17, 559) This relatively weak three dimensional conjugation allows for the implementation of a modular design of new materials, i.e. the adjustments within donor and acceptor moieties (tunability) may be made independently and lead to materials with expected properties (predictability).